Russia’s top security agency said Thursday it has arrested several suspects accused of taking part in an alleged Ukrainian plot to kill senior military officers, an announcement that follows the assassination of a senior Russian general last week
The Federal Security Service, a major successor to the KGB known by its Russian acronym FSB, said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that it had arrested four Russians accused of preparing to kill senior officials of the Ministry of defense
The FSB said the suspected organizers of the attacks planned to kill one of the senior officers with a remote-controlled car bomb. He added that another senior military officer was to be killed by an explosive device hidden in an envelope. The agency did not name the military officers who were the targets of the alleged plot.
The FSB released a video showing the arrest and interrogation of the suspects, who were not named.
The statement follows the death of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was killed on December 17 by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter parked in front of his apartment building as he walked to his office. Kirillov’s aide was also killed in the brazen attack that claimed Ukraine and brought the conflict once again to the streets of the Russian capital.
The FSB has arrested a suspecta citizen of the Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan, and claimed he said he had been recruited by Ukrainian special services.
Kirillov, 54, was the head of Russia’s Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces. These special forces are tasked with protecting the military from the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons by the enemy and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described Kirillov’s killing as a “big mistake” by Russia’s security agencies, noting that they should learn from it and improve their efficiency.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike targeting Kiev’s energy infrastructure, hitting a thermal power plant and sending many into subway shelters on Christmas morning.
Russia’s defense ministry said it had carried out a “massive strike” against what it said were critical energy facilities in Ukraine that support the work of Kiev’s military-industrial complex, Reuters reported.
The Russian attack left half a million people in the Kharkiv region without heat in temperatures just above zero degrees Celsius and there were blackouts in the capital, Kiev, and elsewhere, Reuters added.
The attacks wounded at least six people in Kharkiv and killed one in the Dnipropetrovsk region, governors there said, according to Reuters.
In a statement to X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than 100 attack drones have been used to attack Ukraine’s energy sources.
Putin deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhuman?” Zelenskyy said. “They continue to fight for off in Ukraine.”
US President Biden on Wednesday denounced Russia’s attack, saying that “the purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during the winter and put endanger the security of your network.”